


Give the Kids a Break

by beeberry



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 12:15:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6610372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beeberry/pseuds/beeberry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of drabbles from Tumblr.  Canon/AU status and any ships involved are in the notes at the beginning of each chapter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Move night at Camp Jupiter  
> Theoretically canon-compliant, gen

“Jason.”

“Don’t look at me, Reyna.” She does, lips carefully pinched, brow arched. I shrug helplessly, jostling Reyna and Dakota as I do. With Gwen on Reyna’s other side, there is approximately zero space left on the couch. "I didn’t expect everyone to come.“

If it were actually everyone, we wouldn’t fit, but it’s close enough. We just wanted to watch a movie, but I didn’t want it to look like Reyna and I were playing favorites. I’d suggested we extend the invitation to a few others, and, well.

"Even Nico is here,” Reyna said, trying to hide her incredulity. And okay, nobody had expected that.

The ambassador of Pluto had trailed in after Hazel and Frank like a literal shadow, sticking to the sidelines. Hazel’s face spoke all that needed to be said about how that had happened, and I made a mental note that the notoriously uncooperative kid did, in fact, have one person who knew how to manipulate him. Which made sense. Nico probably didn’t care enough about anyone else at Camp Jupiter to give them bread if they were starving, much less come to a casual social function.

Reyna was still pouting next to me, not that anyone else would be able to tell. "Sorry,“ I repeated. "It’s not bad to do this once in a while, though, right?”

“You can have a smaller party next time,” Gwen promised from Reyna’s other side. I stole one of the untouched cups from Dakota’s collection set out and ready on the coffee table and handed it to Reyna. There’s popcorn, too, spread out so that everyone can reach it. Us four on the couch, Frank and Hazel sharing a chair with Nico sitting against the far side, Bobby in another chair, and a few others scattered across the floor.

“So, do we know what movie we’re watching?” Gwen asked the room at large.

“Let’s see what we have,” Bobby says, sliding off the chair to pick through the pile below the TV. He lists off a few. "‘The Godfather,’ 'Avengers,’ 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower,’ 'Saving Private Ryan,’ 'Singin’ in the Rain,’ 'Titanic’–“

"That’s a classic,” Reyna murmured, probably not meaning for more than me and Dakota and Gwen to hear.

“It’s disgustingly sappy,” Bobby retorted, wrinkling up his nose. "Besides, everyone has seen 'Titanic.’“

I noticed Hazel shifting out of the corner of my eye. Reyna shrugged, blowing Bobby off.

”'Avengers’ sounds good,“ someone piped up.

"You haven’t lived until you’ve seen 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower,’” Gwen put in.

“I’d say the same about 'The Godfather,’” I said, and I might as well have lit the spark. Suddenly everyone was calling out their opinions – and disagreements – voices quickly raising.

Reyna straightened at the same time I did, ready to put a stop to it all and call for a vote, when the TV flickered on.

“What? Who put a movie in?” Bobby asked, leaning away from the TV to look around. I hadn’t seen anyone move either.

“What movie is it?” Gwen asked like that was the real question.

Everyone quieted down as the piracy warning and company introductions played, until…

“It’s 'Titanic,’” Reyna said, sounding almost surprised, but pleased.

Someone started to voice a complaint, but shut up when they received what sounded like a subtle kick in the ribs. I glanced over at Frank, still glaring down at the guy. Beside him, Hazel was turned to Nico. He wasn’t looking at her, but they were both smiling. He said something too quiet to hear, and she turned back to the TV, settling back against Frank to watch. Reyna leaned into my arm, too, and I glanced down to see her smile. I knew she’d seen 'Titanic’ at least five times. But no one else seemed to have any problems with the movie choice, so what was one more rewatch? I settled in to enjoy the movie.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AU, Jason Grace/Nico di Angelo

Finally. It was here. There was a display case towering next to the fantasy section, boldly proclaiming that the next book was here. Jason bit his lip, sauntering in that general direction like he wasn’t itching the grab up the book. He got nervous as he got closer and noticed that the top shelf was empty. Of course, it wasn’t the most popular series but it was popular enough for a cardboard stand, so it would have gone quickly. Flown off the shelves, even. There had to be a copy left.

There was.

There was one copy left.

Jason reached out eagerly for the book. His hand colliding with another, small and pale. Jason had maybe a tenth of a second to marvel at the thin fingers next to his (not thick, but certainly bigger, longer, and tanned) before they flinched back from contact. Jason followed them back, up an oversized leather sleeve to a boy. Maybe a few years younger than him, wispy black hair and deep-set eyes. Eyes that were currently looking at him with a wary, calculating gaze.

Jason almost said sorry, but for what? He hadn’t actually bumped into the boy.

“Oh! There’s… only one book.” Jason shared an awkward look with the boy.

“Yeah.” Honestly, the boy looked torn between just letting Jason have the book while he got out of there as quickly as possible and not being actually willing to let the book go.

The last book had ended on a cliffhanger. This was the only mainstream bookstore in town, and thus the only one likely to have this series, much less the latest book.

“You can have it,” Jason offered.

“No.” Jason’s eyebrows rose with the firmness of the refusal. "It’s fine, take it.“

"I couldn’t do that,” Jason argued. "The last book ended on a cliffhanger.“

The boy gave him an annoyed look. ”Same to you. They’ll probably get a new shipment soon, it’s fine.” He was already stepping away, ready to walk out.

"What if we shared?”

That made the boy’s eyes widen in surprise before they dropped back down, looking at Jason like he thought he was trying to prank him.

“Seriously,” Jason said to make sure it was clear he was honest.

An eyebrow rose. Okay, so that probably wasn’t exactly confidence-inducing from a stranger. One more card to play then.

“Do you want to know what happens to Harriet?”

The boy gave Jason a dirty look. ”How are we supposed to share a book?”

“One of us gets it now, reads it, hands it off.” Jason shrugged, biting his lip again.

“How fast do you read?” the boy asked.

“Pretty fast. You?”

“Pretty fast.” The boy smiled for the first time in the close to ten minutes Jason had been talking to him and Jason couldn’t help smiling back.

“Great.” Jason stuck out his hand. "Jason Grace. Nice to meet you-?“

"Nico di Angelo.” Nico accepted his hand, looking amused. "Nice to meet you, Jason.“

"I have just one question for you, Nico.” Jason schooled his features into a serious look. The smile started to slip from Nico’s face. "What do you think is going to happen to Harriet? I’m betting Drake rescues her.”

“No way. She’s going to use the amulet to get herself out, and probably run into Drake on her way.” Nico snagged the book and Jason led the way over to the coffee counter.

Both turned out to be right.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "it’s 3 am and I’m still in the library studying for finals and I’m losing my grip on reality and I think I just saw a ghost"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AU, Frank Zhang/Hazel Levesque

Not every library stays open 24/7. Hazel thanked the gods for the fourth time in as many hours that she had chosen a college with a library that did, in fact, realize it’s students needed both access to research and a quiet place to study, which dorm rooms did not always provide. At least around finals time they did.

On the other hand, the college was also somewhat environmentally conscious. All well and good, but right now Hazel wished that did not include lowering the lights in the library past 7 pm, which had passed… eight hours ago. Hazel blinked blearily at the little numbers on the corner of her laptop screen and could practically feel the gears in her brain slowly turning to process that it was, indeed, 3 am.

Surely, it couldn’t actually be that late. She had planned to study for Biology after finishing her FYS paper, which she had only just started on after finishing the paper for Ancient Roman Archeology.

She closed her eyes, squeezing them until spots burst, and still had to jerk her head back up. Now the computer screen was swimming before her eyes against the dimly lit bookshelf across from her covered in already dull old tomes.

Something moved in the corner of her eye.

Hazel turned her head, and the thing, she wasn’t sure what, just something off like a mild discoloration or funny shadow, wasn’t there, but it seemed to still be in the corner of her eye, which put it behind her. Hazel turned further around. There was nothing there but another bookshelf.

She stilled, thinking of her brother Nico. There were no other sounds in the library. She had made sure to find a secluded corner where people rarely came during the day, nevermind the middle of the night. Hazel didn’t like noise or people around when she had to really focus, and the atmosphere around other students studying for finals just added another layer of stress. Still, it was 3 in the morning. Maybe she ought to give it up and go to bed for the night.

Ugh, but now she would disturb her roommate if she returned to the dorm. Besides, her paper still wasn’t finished and there was no way she was going to remember the right kind of jellyfish for her Biology exam.

They had talked about jellyfish, right?

Turning back to her computer, Hazel rested her fingers on the keyboard. The cursor blinked accusingly at her, but she let it be for the moment to reread what she had written. Squiggle, scribble, and more squiggly lines. Hazel blinked until they looked like letters. What a time for her dyslexia to kick it up a notch.

A quiet sound interrupted her. Hazel’s shoulder jumped up to her ears and something new flickered in the corner of her eye.

Were those footsteps? Those were definitely footsteps. And they were getting quicker. Hazel couldn’t help it. She screamed.

“Hazel?!”

It was Frank. Hazel made a mostly terrified and partly embarrassed noise something like a mouse getting stepped on and threw herself into his arms, nearly knocking the cell phone with the flashlight app turned on out of his hand. “You scared me!”

“I’m sorry! I just noticed you sitting there, I should have said something sooner, but you looked so focused I wasn’t sure,” Frank was saying, wrapping his strong arms around her. “I think you scared me pretty good, too,” he admitted.

“Sorry,” Hazel sniffled, only now realizing she was on the verge of tears. She forced them back, feeling more embarrassed by the second. “I thought you were a ghost.”

“Zombie, maybe, but not a ghost,” Frank said.

“Finals killing you, too?”

“Yup. I assume that’s why you’re here in the middle of the night, too?”

Hazel nodded and finally let go, stepping back a little and tucking her hair behind her ear. “Papers. And studying. You’ve taken Bio 101, right?”

“And 102 and 201 and half the other Bios, yeah,” Frank said with a smile. “Major, remember?”

“Right.” This night just kept getting better. “I was going to study for that after I finished this FYS paper.”

Frank ushered Hazel back to her chair, pulling out another for himself. “Let’s see what I remember,” he said. “Who’s your professor?”

“Dr. Noah,” Hazel replied, sinking gratefully back into her seat. “Hang on, isn’t it weird that no one else has come?”

Frank looked at quizzically at her.

“Because I screamed. Is there anyone else in the library?” Surely they had heard her?

“I think so. I passed a guy with headphones. Maybe they just assume it’s because of finals.”

“Good point.” Hazel made a face. Now that Frank was here and she was safe from any wandering ghost attacks, she really wanted to just lay her head on his shoulder and take a long nap.

As she was glaring at her computer, Frank reached up and brushed a lock of hair over her shoulder. “Just a few more days, and it’ll all be over,” he promised. “I’ll buy you coffee.”

“Frank?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

He blushed. “Love you, too.”


End file.
